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Announcements
Dec2020; Dalhousie: CFI grant awarded: CCAT-prime telescope and Prime-Cam-350micron $10M, building the widest field, and most sensitive 350um camera ever deployed.
Oct2018; Dalhousie: NSERC-Engage awarded to study Avalanche Photo-Diode detectors for use in Adaptive Optics Systems
July2017; Dalhousie: CFI grant awarded: GIRMOS spectrograph $15M: building the worlds first multi-object, adaptive optics fed, spectrograph for the Gemini telescope.
Newly found galaxy cluster could become most massive structure in universe (Nature 2018)
Sky and Telescope NRAO news release
ALMA rewrites history of Universe's stellar baby boom (2013, Nature)
News and Views ESO report Dal spotlight
Discovery of a vast, thin plane of corotating dwarf galaxies orbiting M31 (2013, Nature)
Research in astrophysics and cosmology:
Infrared and Submillimetre-wave instrumentation, Adaptive Optics
Distant Submm Galaxies and ULIRGs,
Protoclusters of galaxies,
CMB lensing / B-mode polarisation
Local Group Archeaology/ Near-field cosmology
I am currently seeking students to work on a range of exciting projects in astrophysics, cosmology, and instrumentation. Major projects include the the CCAT submillimeter telescope project (top), Gemini Telescope GIRMOS spectrograph (2nd and third from top), the POLARBEAR CMB polarization experiment (Middle), the South Pole Telescope SPT (bottom 2 panels).
Our group studies and models distant, ultra-luminous "submillimeter galaxies" using data from a large range of telescope facilities. We work on instrumentation, primarily the 350-micron camera for the CCAT telescope (2026 deployment), and the Adaptive Optics system for the GIRMOS spectrograph to go to the Gemini telescope in 2028.
We pursue the design, fabrication and characterization of superconducting detectors (KIDs), as well as opto-mechanical devices, primarily for use in cosmological and astrophysical surveys at (sub-)millimetre wavelengths. We are involved in the analysis of cosmological datasets using distant galaxy clusters and the CMB. We also dissect our neighbour galaxy, Andromeda (M31) star by star to uncover its earliest formation events in the distant past - Local Group Cosmology.
There are key opportunities in our group for observational work in astronomy, as well as for laboratory-based MSc and PhD degrees (sub-millimeter instrumentation or near-infrared Adaptive Optics) The research brings together lab detector development, camera integration and commissioning on telescopes in Hawaii on Mauna Kea, and in Chile high in the Atacama desert, and applications to surveys of large (>100 square deg) regions of the sky for both cosmology and astrophysics.
With our colleagues, we are developing detectors with on-chip multi-chroic capabilities for advanced millimeter wavelength cameras, as well as spectrographs. Researchers leaving our group will be well positioned to innovate in the development of opto-mechanical and advanced lithographed devices in a university, national lab, or industrial setting. This technology has applications for astronomy from millimeter through X-ray wavelengths as well as for the direct detection of dark matter with cooled phonon detectors such as the Cold Dark Matter Search.
Other applications include medical THz imaging and gamma-ray detectors for homeland security by adapting these techniques to "nuclear fingerprinting." The continued development of advanced multiplexing techniques for large-format bolometer arrays is a critical enabling technology for a broad range of challenging experimental programs.
Galaxy evolution over 13.7 Gyr
(Durham Computational Cosmology group)